I snapped awake. My eyes remained shut, but my consciousness rallied against the overwhelming drowsiness that threatened to consume it.

This venom is vicious, I thought as I struggled to stay awake. Efficient though. Making sure your food couldn’t escape was rather useful, I had to admit.

The problem with being conscious once more was that I could feel the burning venom as it dissolved my body from within. The sludgy swamp was eating through the last layer of skin, a million biting fangs of acid burrowing into me every instant.

This… maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad.

No, don’t give in. Don’t be a coward. There has to be a way out. You’re a doctor, for fuck’s sake! I argued with myself, wondering if the venom had driven me to madness just like the bear.

Despite my protests there wasn’t much I could do. I couldn’t even move my body. What was left of it, anyway.

My blood essence had been beaten back and now only a few brave sparks remained. I wondered what would happen if I lost it all.

Would my cultivation regress back to seven-stars? Perhaps it would be permanently broken. I hoped I wouldn’t find out, but even that slim hope was fading fast.

Ah, that’s what it feels like.

The venom destroyed the last spark of my blood essence and instead of the devastating loss I expected, there was only a feeling of emptiness. Like I was a beautiful vase, devoid of flowers.

My cultivation was still there, I could faintly feel it. However, without blood essence I couldn’t grasp it. I couldn’t exert a fraction of my power.

I was an empty vessel.

Though fast filling up with venom and acid. Just then, the swamp water burnt through my ribcage and the first drops splashed against my exposed lungs.

If I could move my mouth I would scream. It burned like the flames of hell, dissolving the first of my vital organs.

This was worse than death. That fucking snake would pay if I somehow made it through this ordeal.

Another drop splashed against my lungs, but this time it felt… cold? That was odd. A rib broke as the water ate through it and a surge of corrosive sludge raced to fill my chest.

I grimaced, expecting an inferno of agony.

Until now I’d tried to hold my breath but I could no longer resist. Coughing, I let my lungs deflate and the swampy sludge raced to fill the gaps.

Instead of the burning pain, I shivered. It was like my lungs had been submerged in an ice bath. That helped ease my suffering, but it was far from comfortable.

No longer able to hold myself back, I inhaled. Corrosive acid and vile venom rushed to fill my lungs and I grit my teeth, expecting the wave of agony.

It never came.

A deep, slumbering hunger rose within me. I realised that most of the venom and sludge I’d inhaled was gone.

My lungs weren’t burning, breaking down under the corrosive onslaught. Instead they seemed to be glowing with vitality.

I focused inwards, struggling against the fog clouding my mind. The torrent of sludge splashed against my lungs and instead of dissolving the vulnerable flesh, it was absorbed!

But my blood essence is gone… I wondered how I was still absorbing the corruption. Suddenly my head exploded with information, struck like lightning.

At that moment, I understood.

Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique.

This was the name whispered in my ears, the secret behind my strange body and mysterious sight.

It could’ve been dormant since Zhao Dan’s birth, but I suspected that wasn’t the case. This had to be the oath. I knew that a single technique wasn’t all I’d been granted in exchange for my crippled spirit roots.

While all its mysteries had not been revealed to me, I’d been granted enough to know it was my one chance to make it through this ordeal alive.

Like the name suggested, this physique involved five layers that one would need to progressively cultivate. To begin with, I would need to refine my internal organs by absorbing various medicines—or poisons.

This would not only increase my body’s resistance to such things, but also grant me greater regeneration and wholly twist my blood essence—and eventually qi—to have healing properties.

If Zhao Dan had possessed this physique all along, it made complete sense why he’d struggled to advance using the Cloudy Falls Sect’s cultivation method. Those who possessed the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique had powerful healing techniques, but the drawback was they were unable to cultivate in the usual manner.

All along, my explosive growth had been driven by my use of my hastily created healing technique.

I hadn’t realised it back then, but I’d accidentally stumbled onto the right path. Most cultivators in this world were cruel and violent, stomping their rivals and leaving a trail of blood and death as they climbed towards the peak.

However, I could only progress by doing the opposite. Cultivation through healing. It suited me well, but to be honest knowing this didn’t change much.

It was just a confirmation that I had made the right choice. At the time I was frustrated with the heavens for being so stingy, but it had inadvertently led me to this discovery.

I exhaled, bubbles escaping my mouth and racing to the surface of the swamp.

I inhaled, greedily sucking in the sludge and the viper’s venom.

My lungs had begun the process of refinement. The first layer of my physique was to cultivate the internal organs.

I continued to breathe, each time hungrily devouring more of the corruption that tainted my body.

The venom seemed to tremble, realising it was no longer the apex predator in this environment. This was my body and I refused to give it up.

Every breath restored more movement to me and cleared away the fog that clouded my mind. My finger twitched.

Looking down, I winced at the state of my body. Most of my skin had been dissolved, exposing muscle and bone.

However, as I continued to breathe and absorb the foul venom, I noticed that with every exhale, wisps of green energy were released into the swamp.

On my next breath, instead of letting that energy escape, I trapped it. I sucked it back in and it didn’t resist much.

The green energy splashed against my throat and I gasped, watching as the flesh was restored through its power.

Converting poison to medicine. This was the most basic technique of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique, besides my crude healing art.

After that realisation, I refused to let any more of the precious energy escape. Every wisp my lungs released was trapped and guided through my body, slowly healing me.

****

I exhaled, directing the final green wisp to heal the hairline fracture in my rib. Restoring my whole body had taken too long.

Was the bear still fighting, struggling against the vile viper? It had to be, or the snake would’ve returned to devour its prey. The swamp sludge was thick and dark, blocking my vision.

That wasn’t going to be a problem much longer. I wasn’t content with just healing myself.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Now that I knew the strength of my physique, I would put it to full use. My body felt weak, still lacking blood essence.

I was unable to use my cultivation, but that would soon change. Letting out the final remnants of sludge in my lungs, I inhaled.

And continued to inhale, even when it felt like my lungs would burst. Even when I felt a mounting pressure building in my chest.

The top of my head was blasted with a wave of hot air. I wanted to smile, but that would’ve been too much to handle. Truly, my whole body felt swollen.

My lungs were doing their utmost to refine the disgusting sludge and with every portion they cleansed, shone a little more. Soon the level of the swamp had dropped enough that I could see my surroundings.

My brow furrowed and I squinted, wondering if the lingering venom was making me hallucinate. We’d been in the middle of the forest, so where were the trees?

I stood up, my muscles stiff from underuse. Even with my lungs refining and cleansing the corruption in my body I wouldn’t be free from such things until I broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm and shed the chains of a mortal body.

Taking a better look around, I realised that all the trees near the swamp had been smashed apart, the trunks lying scattered. There was no sign of the bear or the snake, but it was clear their battle had been fierce.

Not wasting time, I began searching for their tracks. I couldn’t leave the bear to die after all that effort. And my reasoning wasn’t purely altruistic…

My damn blood essence was inside the spirit bear. If I wasn’t able to find it in time, there was a chance I’d have to start cultivating again from scratch, crawling from one-star Body Tempering back to my peak.

Soon I found splattered venom and trails of blood, all leading in a single direction. That was a good sign.

That the fight had been steered away from the swamp meant the bear had managed to draw the snake away from its lair, where it no longer reigned supreme. Though the amount of blood and clumps of fur I spotted were worrying.

Enemies that fought with venom and poisons were tricky, since they only needed to strike once and wait for their foul creations to weaken you. The bear had been healing through my technique, but I didn’t expect it to last forever.

Suddenly, a tree exploded on my left and I threw myself backwards as a blur of brown sailed past, crashing through two more trees and then stopping. I heard a pained growl and winced at the sorry state of the bear.

Fur was missing, ripped from its skin all over the spirit beast’s body. Cuts tinged with venom, rotting and festering, covered its body and I could see the telltale signs of madness creeping in.

“Damn bear, I already cured you once. The only person allowed to kill you is me,” I yelled, snapping it out of its stupor.

I ducked under a swipe of its claws, but it seemed to recognise me and let out a weak grunt. Finally, I’d returned to the fight.

Placing a hand against the bear, I gasped at the colossal wave of essence that slammed into me.

It was like trying to force a raging river into a drainpipe. My body strained, but I was starved of essence and needed this like a man stranded in the desert needed water.

I felt the weakness leave my body as more blood essence surged in. One-star, two-star, three-star.

The amount of strength I was able to wield rapidly grew until I’d reached my peak once more. But it didn’t stop there.

The essence continued to flow, carrying me through eight-star Body Tempering. It only stopped when I was about two-thirds of the way towards the ninth star.

Clenching and unclenching my fist, I relished in the feeling of my cultivation returning. With my Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique and my raw strength, I would finish this once and for all.

Something splashed against my back. I felt a soft sting as the snake’s venom started corroding my skin, but no sooner had it started did a single breath suck it in, refining the venom into medicinal energy that restored my skin.

That wasn’t all I had at my disposal. My blood essence, after healing so much of the toxic wounds for the bear, had grown more potent.

A deep green hue shimmered around each red spark. Unlike the soft, gentle green of the energy my lungs released, it was a dark, venomous green. Despite their similarities, my blood essence and lungs didn’t react or work together.

They were separate sources of strength. Now that I knew the snake wasn’t much of a threat, I had nothing left to lose.

Pumping half of my blood essence back into the bear to heal its wounds, I motioned for it to stay down when it roared and tried to join me.

“Just lie there, you dumb furry beast,” I chuckled. “Let me have some fun.”

The snake hissed and spat more venom at me. I rushed forward, not caring if the corrosive spit splashed me or not.

It wasn’t painless, the venom burned my skin where it landed, but I figured the quicker I finished the job the better. The snake panicked when I drew close, but it was too late.

I reached out and grabbed hold of its body, wrapping my arms around and digging my fingers under its scales. Blood trickled out and it hissed in pain.

The snake opened its jaws, revealing those venomous fangs that had caused me so much pain. I would never let myself be tortured like that again; be powerless to control my own fate.

The sludge from the swamp had gone a long way to letting me refine my lungs, but the first layer of my physique was far from complete. I needed more.

Luckily there was a gigantic source of venom within my grasp. The snake hissed and struck, biting down on the same shoulder as before.

I barely flinched.

Instead I smiled right into its yellow slit-eyes as it pumped my chest full of venom once more. My chest rose and fell, a single breath.

The snake seemed confused as to how I was still standing and pumped more venom from its fangs. That was a mistake.

Looking at the state of the surrounding forest and the wounded bear, I had no doubt that leaving this spirit snake alive would only spell disaster for everything that lived here.

That included the people of Nine Paddy Village. I refused to leave such an infection to fester so close to Xiao Cui’s home.

Finally my fingers broke through the snake’s tough skin. The moment they made contact I started to devour the beast’s poisonous energy.

Instead of fighting back, it was too focused on trying to inject its venom into my chest. Foolish.

Once it did realise what was happening it immediately reared its head, ripping its fangs from my shoulder in a spray of blood. However, it was far too late to stop me.

I’d drained a third of the energy in its body and my lungs were working overtime to purify it, constantly healing my own wounds. There was so much that a lot of it was wasted, expelled into the surroundings.

By now the snake had lost the strength to fight back and could only hiss in rage. It struggled, smashing its tail against me as I continued to drain its venomous energy.

Once it was too weak to do even that, I put it out of its misery, snapping its neck. It hadn’t been so kind to me, but I was no torturer.

I continued absorbing energy until the snake was just a shrivelled sack of scaly skin, letting the corpse fall to the forest floor. I wondered if I could bring it back to the village and make use of the spirit beast parts, but the moment I tried to gather the corpse I heard a growl.

The bear was snarling at me, bearing its fangs despite the battle we’d just fought together. Was this my reward for healing it? Betrayal?

However, the spirit bear didn’t move to attack, just continued to growl. I looked down at the snake corpse in my hand, then back to the bear.

“You want this?” I asked, puzzled.

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if the villagers would be able to use the materials, so there was no harm in letting the bear take it. I threw the body towards the creature and it stopped snarling.

The moment it caught the body it tore it apart, ripping through the papery scales with ease. I frowned at the excessive waste but the bear soon stopped, pulling a red marble from inside the snake and crushing it between its teeth.

I saw a stream of blood essence flowing down its neck. It seemed like the bear only wanted the snake’s beast core. That was how spirit beasts advanced their cultivation.

After devouring the core, the bear seemed sluggish. I placed a hand against its fur and let my blood essence flow back to me.

My temporary ally was healed and its enmity had been resolved. There was still a month of winter left, so it would likely head into hibernation once more.

Gazing into its eyes I felt the bear’s gratitude. I felt the same way. I’d nearly died in this forest, but that torturous tribulation had been worth it to discover the secrets of my physique.

I was pleased with my gains. All this because of my curiosity… Now though, it was time to return to Nine Paddy Village.

Sniffing myself I recoiled in disgust. I was covered in blood and dirt, still cursed to suffer from body odour.

I needed a bath.

****

In the end, I headed straight for the old granny’s house. She raised an eyebrow after seeing my condition, but didn’t say much.

There was a wooden bathtub in one of the spare rooms which I filled with water heated over the fire. It was quite an ordeal collecting it, but well worth the trouble.

Letting myself sink into the steamy water, I felt the tension lift from my sore muscles. Moments like this made life worth living.

I looked back at the events since being expelled from the Cloudy Falls Sect. I’d come a long way in just a few months.

Certainly, the speed my cultivation had grown was the most outstanding part of the journey by far. Only the most talented geniuses of the sect might be able to boast a similar rate of improvement.

However, I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I’d noticed during the battle but the more I healed the bear’s wounds the less my blood essence seemed to multiply.

Either healing the same patient over and over again became increasingly less effective or I would need to seek out patients with higher realms of cultivation.

I suspected it was the latter, because the actual potency of my healing hadn’t dropped one bit. Though I would need to do more tests to make sure.

All my adventures and encounters had led me to consider my purpose here. I hadn’t chosen this new life, but I was determined to make the most of it. The day I’d left the sect I’d boasted to Wang Ren about becoming the world’s first medicine immortal.

At the time it was easy to say. Without knowing much of this world, its culture, or how absurdly difficult it was to cultivate to that realm, I’d simply believed it a continuation of my career as a doctor.

Now that I had more experience, my perspective had shifted. But my goals hadn’t changed one bit.

I still wanted to reach the pinnacle of medicine in the Celestial Jade Empire. And then perhaps, the entire world.

To accomplish my goals I would need to come up with a better way of practicing my techniques than stumbling into lucky encounters with the wounded. To that end, I decided to mix a little knowledge from Earth with the customs of this world.

As the population of Earth grew, treating the ailments of countless humans became trickier, so we dedicated whole buildings to it—hospitals. I hadn’t seen anything similar here, save for the odd room reserved for recovery after ingesting a pill.

The problem was, I didn’t think I could just set up shop in Three River City without arousing suspicion from the locals. So instead of calling it a hospital, I borrowed some inspiration from my new world.

I was going to found the Celestial Jade Empire’s very first medicine sect.